106 Responses to “Show #201: Two Sweeps Mark the Braves Week”

We have to start him in the wild card game right? He literally hasn’t had a single non-amazing start the entire season. I understand that Hudson is the veteran and that he’s having a good year in his own right, but Medlen’s numbers are mythical. It’ll be hard to stomach losing knowing we had a 0.94 WHIP, 1.51 ERA, undefeated starter unused on our bench.

Just to continue the ridiculous love for Medlen (and maybe take it to another level), is there any way that he wins a Cy Young? Is he even eligible? I know Gio Gonzalez has been pretty good, but no one has been as dominant as Meds.

I was wondering that earlier…… for the sake of the argument, say Medlen wins or has no losses for the remainder of the season and the Braves go as far as the NLCS and he pitches well in the playoffs…. Medlen HAS pitched all year, does he at least get 1 Cy Young vote?

I guess it won’t surprise anybody that I half-sympathize with the writer of that article. Chipper’s very often seemed like a world class jerk to me. Both my mother and grandmother, may they rest in peace, had to like the Braves in spite of him.

But I never saw a better hitter. And he’s shown more class and proved me wrong more times about his personality the last couple years than I can count. So … long live Larry.

I’ve lost track of the Braves rotation, but it was already 1-0 when I tuned in and I said, “Hanson or Maholm, eh?” Not that I don’t trust them.

wow that piece on chipper was wrong on many levels.
im all for free speech, but i think that piece is all about that guy and not chipper. & that guy is the real dbag. the internet allows him to publicly display chippers dirty laundry for his gain. his hatred of chipper and “old war stories” probably gets him 10 minutes and free beer at his local bar. ef you.

if chipper was a hipocrite that would be one thing, but i dont think he is. this makes him just seem more normal to me. so he was a bit of a dumb jock when he was younger. he obviously likes the comfort of women to a fault. maybe its just the halo of this awesome last season, but he seems more of an example of a guy that rose above his own weaknesses and keeps moving forward. not public enemy 1.

1. I have officially eschewed all of the Star Wars prequels from my life. I resisted for a long time, but they are dead to me. I have to see the Hayden’s ghosty face at the end of RTOTJ, but that’s where it ends. The originals are way, way too good to be diluted with that garbage.

2. The blu-rays of IV, V, and VI have a bunch of nigh unforgivable audio and visual additions from a megalomaniacal Lucas who can’t stop screwing with perfection.

3. However, the blu-rays are gorgeous. Seeing these films in high definition is startling, “like seeing them for the first time” as the cliche goes. Not every frame is great, but 50% of the time or more I’m sitting there freaking out how gorgeous they are, especially, MOST especially The Empire Strikes Back. The late 70’s/ early 80’s film aesthetic, if that’s your thing, is on display to the maximum. I never realized how much of a 70’s film Star Wars was till I saw this super-filmic transfers of it on a decent tv. Empire, too. Until Lucas is himself a ghost beside Ben & Yoda, and someone sensible re-transfers the originals onto Blu-ray un-monkeyed-with, these will have to do, and I think I can live with that, though I understand why purists/nerds reject them.

Has any starting pitcher in the National League been even remotely as dominating as Craig Kimbrel or Aroldis Chapman? That answer, beyond dispute, is no. And this hasn’t been just routine domination. This has been historic levels of domination — particularly in the case of Kimbrel, who has had possibly the most dominant, overpowering season any NL closer has ever had.

Curt Schilling … laughed at the idea that starters “deserve” to be considered first.

“I have ZERO bias one way or the other,” Schilling wrote, via the miracle of email. “Cy Young is for the BEST pitcher, not most valuable or anything else. When anyone in this game does something that hasn’t been done in 112 years [as Kimbrel has], it bears noticing.

Ready for Kimbrel’s historic credentials? Fasten your seat belts. (Note: To rank Kimbrel’s place in history, I compared him only to pitchers — starters or relievers — who worked at least 50 innings in a season.)

Strikeouts: 105 in 57 1/3 IP, the best strikeout ratio ever (16.5/9 IP)
Opponent AVG.: .128, the lowest against any pitcher since 1900
Opponent OPS: .368, the lowest against any pitcher in the expansion era
WHIP: 0.68, best by any National League reliever since 1900
Percentage of hitters struck out: 49.5 pct., best in live-ball era
Strikeout-to-hit ratio: 105 whiffs, 25 hits (4.2), best of all time

And then there’s the other stuff. With runners on base, he’s faced 71 hitters — and allowed a hit to four of them. … With runners in scoring position, he’s faced 29 hitters — and given up a hit to one of them. … Of his past 125 outs, 81 of them have come on strikeouts. … He’s had eight outings in which he struck out all three hitters he’s faced — more than Chapman, Fernando Rodney, Jonathan Papelbon, Rafael Soriano, Jim Johnson and Jason Motte combined. … And have we mentioned this man has whiffed 11 more hitters for the season than his rotation amigo, Tim Hudson — but in 107 1/3 fewer innings?

“He’s a special guy,” one NL scout said of Kimbrel. “When you go and watch him pitch, it’s absolutely amazing. The hitters can’t swing and hit the ball. It’s that simple. They can’t time him. You see guys try to cheat or do everything they can do to hit him. They can’t do it.”

Looking for a good definition of a Cy Young? “The hitters can’t swing and hit the ball” sure works for me. So if I had to vote right now, it would be for Craig Kimbrel. No contest.